Breaking through the Blue Wall of Silence

A protestor at a January 2009 demonstration against the killing of Oscar Grant by BART Police in Oakland, CA.

Who polices the police? Do you or your neighbors have any say in the way your town’s cops and sheriffs do business? For more than 35 years, cities around the country have been creating civilian oversight agencies – trying to make local police and sheriffs accountable to the communities they serve. On this edition, producer Andrew Stelzer takes a look at the ongoing battle between the people and the police – and the debate over who gets to decide when an officer has done something wrong.

This program was a special collaboration between National Radio Project and Spot.Us, a community funded reporting project. Check out the print version of this story here.